Rhona Byrne

Dublin-based visual artist Rhona Byrne received a BA in Fine Art (Sculpture) from the National College of Art & Design, Dublin in 1994 and is currently completing an MA by Research at LSAD TUS, where she also teaches. Her work has been commissioned extensively in Ireland and internationally, with projects focusing on lively investigations of embodiment, interaction and materiality.

Her practice is connective and multi-disciplinary, with a collaborative and cross-media approach. She makes context-specific situated public projects, social sculpture, relational objects, performative sculptures, video and photographs that explore the complex multi-dimensionality of physical and social space and examine relations between people, place and materials. She often repurposes discarded materials, interrupting their journey and reimagining their use or uselessness, questioning society’s material entanglements. A recent project commissioned by Dublin City Council, Restless : Liffey Love, involved the collection of waste plastic from the River Liffey, its repurposing into sheet material, and finally its use for the construction of a social sculpture in the form of two love seats situated on the North Campshires on the North Wall Quays in Dublin 1. The work considers connection and what it means to love our city, rethink materials of everyday life and nurture a sense of collective civic engagement.

Rhona Byrne applied for a Golden Fleece Award to support the making of a new body of work for exhibition. This will centre on the theme of “the pathos of leftovers” and focus on repurposing detritus plastic and exploring the agency of this material, repositioning it as an active, adaptive participant in the material world.